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Rate and Review: "The Wreck of the Relationship" (SABF17)

Original Airdate: October 5th, 2014. When Bart disrespects Homer's authority, Homer makes a point to try his hand at parenting. This proves fruitless, so Marge signs them up for the Relation Ship, where they'll resolve their conflicts at sea. Meanwhile, Marge is in charge of Homer's fantasy football league, but manages to win despite being the underdog. Rate and Review after it airs and such.

Just because I'm stupider than them, they think they're smarter than me!Simpsons Season 27 Ratings:Every Man's Dream-4.8/10 Cue Detective-6/10 Puffless-7/10 Halloween of Horror-8.4/10 Treehouse of Horror XXVI-(4.5, 5, 3.5) 4.25/10 Friend With Benefit-5/10 Lisa With An 'S'-5.5/10 Paths of Glory--/10 Barthood--/10 The Girl Code--/10 Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles--/10 Much Apu About Something--/10 Gal of Constant Sorrow--/10 Love Is in the N2-O2-Ar-CO2-Ne-He-CH4--/10 Lisa the Veterinarian--/10 The Marge-ian Chronicles--/10 The Burns Cage--/10 How Lisa Got Her Marge Back--/10 Fland Canyon--/10 Simprovised--/10 To Courier With Love--/10 Orange is the New Yellow--/10Futurama Season 7B Ratings:2-D Blacktop-7.5/10 Fry and Leela's Big Fling-7.9/10 T.: The Terrestrial-8.2/10 Forty Percent Leadbelly-6.8/10 The Inhuman Torch-8.4/10 Saturday Morning Fun Pit-(9, 7, 8.5) 8.2/10 Calculon 2.0-8.7/10 Assie Come Home-8.5/10 Leela and the Genestalk-7.2/10 Game of Tones-9.2/10 Murder on The Planet Express-9/10 Stench and Stenchibility-8.5/10 Meanwhile-9.5/10Jumping the Shark since 1998...Alternate Ending Winner of NHC Survivor Season 1

this was unfunny and stupid (i barely paid attention to it at all) as usual but i really liked the little documentary thing where moe is a champion trashtalker and marge was like this 'rookie trashtalker' with a hat on top of her hair. that made me laugh. at least i can say that about it

Originally Posted by Gatorgod

Back in the day, Daffy & Donald were polar opposites, providing a much needed diverse, full spectrum to the public's Duck entertainment needs.

Yup, the broccoli stuff took up the whole first act. That was so lame. I think it's probably worse than the first act of The Lastest Gun in the West with Bart being chased by the dog. (Actually, I take that back... at least the broccoli was semi-relevant to the plot.)

ACT TWO:

Some of the trash talk was kind of funny.

I got a real laugh at the Wi-Fi router being held by the Virgin Mary.

Hearing Nick Offerman's voice reminds me that I could be watching Parks and Recreation, which is easily a better show than Zombie Simpsons (even at its worst).

Homer calling Bart his worst enemy? I'm not sure what to think of that.

ACT THREE:

So now Captain Ron Swanson is relapsing into alcoholism? That came totally out of nowhere.

And he is sober in the next scene, so it was also useless.

Oh, I see. They dragged the broccoli as long as they did because they wanted it to come back as an emotional plot point later. Except it didn't work because of their lack of subtlety in the beginning.

- The enire first act was about some stupid fucking broccoli fight between Homer and Bart
- I didn’t laugh once
- Finally just before the commercial break, Homer and Bart get kidnapped

Act 2

- Yay, something actually happens
- Homer and Bart fighting was just stupid and jokeless
- The church scene actually made me chucke
- The relation ship discussion was boring
- The ‘over-under-over-under’ went on far too long - typical modern Simpsons

Act 3

- The B-plot with Marge was actually slightly enjoyable
- I liked the whole scene with the fantasy football player interviews, and Marge winning
- The captain suddenly becoming an alcoholic was weird and came out of nowhere
- At least Bart ate the broccoli, so the whole first act wasn’t a total waste of time - still EXTREMELY BORING
- Stupid predictable ending, but at least there was some kind of closure

Overall, the B-plot was quite good, but the A-plot was bad, boring, and the ending was lame. I expected a LOT better from Matt Selman.

I thought it was really good. It felt fresh for a Bart and Homer episode, the subplot was actually pretty funny, and I liked the broccoli callback at the end. The ending was a little predictable, but the scene with the Sea Captain was really funny. Matt Selman really needs to be the full time EP. 5/5

Good episode nick offermen was great in this one, homer and bart have troubles and all starts with broccoli so marge puts them on a cruise ship to solve their problems and it kind of works out and then marge is in charge of homers football fantasy and shes bad at first then she becomes good at it, i like how they put the sea captain at the end of this episode for joke reasons. 4/5

I enjoyed this episode better than "Clown in the Dumps." I was entertained and even lol'd a few times, which is all I really ask for from The Simpsons. There was some absolutely beautiful animation in some of the boat scenes, which IMO make this episode memorable. I will give it a 4/5.

4/5 - best episode in a while. I was laughing for most of the episode, even the couch gag. Great B plot with fantasy football, at least until Marge ran away with the WiFi.

Deducting a point because you have to wonder why Homer hasn't killed Bart or give him away at this point. He doesn't listen and their relationship is borderline unwatchable. The kid has no boundaries and it's really annoying and hurts the show now.

If ever there was an episode where separate scores for the animation and EVERYTHING else about the episode was warranted... this is the one.
Chuck Sheetz doesn't get to take the direction reigns of an episode nearly enough. But when he does... it winds up looking pretty damn good.

Real shame about the writing in this one, though. It was the typical Westbrook bland we've grown to know and love.
We even got a lengthy couch gag in a Selman ep (frown)... but, at least he rebelled against the 4-act structure which did wonders for the pacing.

Nice voicework from Nick Offerman but I had a hard time buying into either the gags or the story this week.
It takes more than a musical montage while Homer sucks lemons to get me to buy Bart as being a respected midshipman.
Literally everyone else on that ship apart from Bowditch was window dressing.

As for episodes featuring the Simpsons out at sea, I'd rather watch A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again... again.
And, as a fantasy football junkie, you shouldn't tackle that subject matter and fail to make me laugh.
Something The League (also a FOX show) has succeeded in doing countless times.

It's so frustrating when you get a story like this that's far-fetched with forced conflict and it fail to register... yet boasts excellent pacing.
And contrast it with an episode like Pay Pal with genuine tension and actual conflict... which boasts terrible pacing.
Why can't I have both? Or at least give me some gags that don't require everyone to be inexplicably walking around carrying broccoli with them.

was kinda intrigued to hear how offerman would voice act, wasn't really good except the, "count me in" part when he was drunk. liked that homer's team name was somewhere over Dwayne Bowe, but i mean the simpson writers didn't even come up with it. liked homer saying later that he hated lemons then it cuts later to some in his mouth, would have been funny if they kept cutting to him with lemons in his mouth. the nfl films bit could have gone somewhere but ultimately it just wasn't funny. i always love it in cartoons when they encounter rough seas, but this one was so poorly animated that you didn't even feel as if they were in danger. my only smile in the episode came from the very end when they ran away from the sea captain, love that guy. otherwise there were zero jokes and nothing to make me want to revisit it.

The plot didn't go off on any pointless tangents, it managed to balance both the main plot and the subplot fairly well, and almost everything that happened seemed to contribute to plot in some way (even the broccoli stuff, which while it went on for a long time, wasn't a terrible way to set up the main conflict. It just should have been shorter. Also, I'm not counting the captain's alcoholism as a tangent since it did serve the plot by forcing Bart to make the decisions. I'm not sure what the criticsms about that coming out of nowhere are about. It was pretty convenient, but do recovering alcoholics go around constantly mentioning that they are recovering alcoholics? Now that I think about that, though, I was a bit worried that the plot was going to take to a turn reminiscent of The Lastest Gun in the West where Bart and Homer have to try to help the captain with his alcoholism. Fortunately, it didn't though). Anyway, on top of that, the humour was pretty good for an HD episode; it had few terrible gag attempts (although I seem to remember there being some at least, although I can't specifically remember what they were) and I chuckled a few times. I can't recall any egregious issues with characterization, either. And the subplot wasn't bad. That is about everything that I have to say about this episode that is good, but that is quite a bit for an HD episode.

Bart becoming good enough at being a sailor that he is promoted above everyone else isn't very easy to buy, and there wasn't much of a reason given as to why that happened. Also, I guess it is too much to ask for a story about going to sea that doesn't involve being caught in a storm (other things can happen at sea, you know), and it was pretty convenient that Bart just happened to have some broccoli with him on the boat. Bart's evolution from refusing the eat the broccoli to eating the broccoli wasn't very well developed (that was forgotten about until it became convenient to reference it again; I would have liked more internal conflict (i.e. showing what Bart was thinking in some way)). I will also point out that the premise of this episode seems to based on a pun. But whatever. However, in the context of the HD era, this was well-written (definitely lacking, but the plot was focused. Or maybe it seemed focused compared to last week's episode, which just kind of drifted along without any real structure. I don't know). For the HD era, I would call this a success. 5/10

This is one of Selman's weaker efforts, but it is still quite good for the HD era. The reversal of authority between Bart and Homer was done well without any Bart-abusing-Homer crap (see: Love is a Many-Strangled Thing). The broccoli stuff in the first act went on for too long, and that time could have been used to develop Marge's subplot (which was typical HD Simpsons; nothing really happened), but the broccoli stuff was funny, and it helped set up a great ending where Bart and Homer learn to respect each other. Jokes were above-average, and the captain wasn't too bad of a one-time character. Overall, a solid Bart-Homer episode; not one of Selman's best, but still good. 8.5/10 (4/5 for the poll)

LYRICS to the closing credits song
The music appears to be from the traditional shanty "Haul Away Joe", but it's definitely "heel" in this version.

My name is Joseph Bowditch from a seaport known as Mystic
I sail at dawn bound for Cape Horn and counseling holistic
We'll work your conflicts out through sailing's therapeutic powers
The fresh water is limited, so please combine your showers
Weigh, heel away
We'll heel away, Joe
I got a bad sunburn and I was crapped on by a seagull
I don't see any lifeboats and I don't think that is legal
Weigh, heel away
We'll heel away, Joe

There was no animation after the last commercial break. Has this happened since the first season?

Do you mean that the third act ended with the EP credit (Selman and Jean), followed by a commercial break, followed by the rest of the credits (Starting with Dan Castellaneta)? If so, isn't that how they always did it before the four-act structure was adopted a couple of years ago?

First off: The recording started late, so I missed almost all the opening. What was it? (I haven't read the thread yet, so don't answer if it's already been asked)

I thought this episode was pretty solid. The entire broccoli wait-out thing went on a little too long and wasn't too funny. I wish Lisa had mentioned something about the sundae she was given as a callback to Marge's crappy sundaes in Pokey Mom. The plot got pretty good when the kidnapping occured; it reminded me a little bit of The Computer Wore Menace Shoes' kidnapping act change. I enjoy fantasy football myself, so I liked the subplot, but Homer knows firsthand how brilliant Lisa is at picking football, so he definitely should've let her pick. I did like that she helped Marge with it, mentioning the wind gusts that would help the kickers (That's got to be a giant league, by the way; everyone in Springfield seems to be in it!). The plot on the ship was pretty good, but I really liked when Bart ate the broccoli and Homer obeyed him. That was a very strong resolution. This was a 4/5-worthy episode.

After a mediocre episode from last week, it's nice to see that this week's episode was a good one. I liked the idea of an Itchy and Scratchy couch gag and they pulled it off. It was funny and the time length for it was just right.

The first act with Homer trying to get Bart to eat his broccoli was very funny and I like how they chose this as the conflict instead of something typical like Homer abusing Bart. The main plot had a lot of funny moments and Nick Offerman's role was decent and while the sub-plot wasn't as good it still had it's moments. The only real problem I have with this episode is that I wish Homer and Bart bonded more in this episode instead of until the very end of the episode, but it's still better than nothing. While this isn't the best Selman outing, it's still a very solid episode and it's the best one of the night. 8/10

Why are there so many people giving this 4/5? This was so boring. I can not see how people liked this episode. I liked the captain and there was some really excellent animation in there but I barely laughed. At least it was better than Clown In The Dumps. It's pretty good for a new season, the atmosphere was nice and the third act was great but I can not like it enough to give it a 4/5. The broccoli part dragged on for way too long, at least I enjoyed the incredibly long fight scene in The Simpsons Guy so it wasn't all bad. If they keep up what the second and third act was like, I would enjoy Season 26.

Bart's relationship with Homer at the beginning was unwatchable. He has never been this bad to where he absolutely never listens to Homer, it just seemed out of character. I did like the joke about parental control though.
Nearly a 3/5 but the beginning was too crap (Except for the couch gag, that was pretty good). 2.5/5.

My Favourite Moments Were:
"Put the sack back on, I'm trying to sleep."
The captain of The Relation Ship
The Trash Talk
Homer falling off the ship by being hit by the accordion
Marge beating Moe in Fantasy Football
Homer being swept by the wave and coming back with no reaction
Most of Homer and Bart's relationship (Most of, I could not stand Bart in the beginning)